Mirror Girls
by Daemon hunter
Summary: Whenever they look at each other, they see the qualities they feel they lack in themselves and the person that they want to be. Or, Honoka and Tsubasa pretend to be each other in the mirror.


**A/N: Notes at the end. As usual, I don't own Love Live! School Idol Project and the following story has been written for the purposes of entertainment only.**

* * *

"Welcome to UTX High. How are you feeling today?"

The three voices speaking in unison blasted across the forecourt of the school, amplified far beyond their natural volume by the gigantic television hanging above the school entrance. Everything about UTX seemed to be huge, loud and brash: the TV, the towering building that seemed to be all gleaming windows and most of all (according to the strange masked girl stood next to her) their school idol group; A-RISE.

When Honoka had decided that morning to go and check out the competing school that seemed to have won over her little sister, she hadn't even really known what a school idol was. But it was there, standing in the long shadow of UTX, that she received her induction on the subject.

She watched the performance slack-jawed; it was hard to believe that these idols were schoolgirls her own age. They sang and danced like professionals, better than professionals even. It was like performing was their natural element, their birthright.

Mesmerized by the show, Honoka was simply unable to tear her eyes away from the screen. More often than not, her eyes wandered to the girl who drove the performance in the group's centre. A number of adjectives popped into Honoka's head as she watched her: beautiful, graceful, commanding, stunning, utterly amazing; all traits that Honoka felt she herself personally lacked. The centre danced flawlessly side by side with her two fellow idols, and although they were also amazingly talented, Honoka found her attention did not stay on either of them for very long. The girl in the centre demanded attention without actually demanding it; she had a presence extremely difficult to ignore.

As A-RISE moved into their first chorus, Honoka staggered away, clutching onto a nearby railing to keep herself upright. Her mind was working in overdrive; this was it, she thought. This was how she could save Otonokizaka from shutting down! She would become a school idol, form a group and save the school. It was such a simple idea she was amazed she hadn't thought of it earlier.

But there was more to it than that. Becoming a school idol might well help save her school, but Honoka already knew that she didn't want to be just another school idol. Her aspirations were higher than that: she wanted to be just like that girl dancing in the centre. For a reason she couldn't explain, Honoka wanted that girl to know who she was. One day, she wanted the girl to know her on first name terms and meet her as an equal worthy of respect. Why she wanted that she couldn't say; she just knew that she did.

A quick glance at her watch quickly put her half-formed thoughts to bed. If she didn't leave straight away, she'd be late for school, and worse she'd be in for another one of Umi's long lectures about the virtues of punctuality. Wanting nothing more than to avoid such a terrible fate, she took off down the street as fast as her legs would carry her but not before taking one last look at the giant screen.

The girl in the centre winked at her. Honoka's face began to grow warm before she remembered that it was just a recording.

* * *

Two months after the day of her epiphany, Honoka was proud to be a part of an idol group of her own. What had started as a three girl group (not unlike A-RISE) soon turned into a group of six, then seven, then finally nine. But it hadn't been a walk in the park: she had to overcome a great deal of resistance along the way from the very girls who she now counted among her closest friends. Umi's misgivings, Maki's distance, Hanayo's shyness, Rin's lack of confidence, Nico's scorn and Eli's bureaucratic barriers; one by one, Honoka overcame these obstacles and convinced them all to join (with a big heap of help from Nozomi and Kotori along the way).

One thing Honoka hadn't counted on though was how demanding the life of an idol could be, both physically and mentally. Every single morning started with a round of physical training and every weekday afternoon was filled with at least two hours of dance practice. Honoka had never been more physically exhausted in her life, had never worked harder in her life, but she never complained. She'd never been quite so happy either. It was truly wonderful to be a part of something as special as Muse and every second of work, every ounce of strength expended in the furtherance of her dreams was truly worth the effort. And it wouldn't have been possible if they didn't work together.

But there were some things that her friends didn't know about her, things not even Kotori or Umi knew; some aspects of her dream she'd shared with no-one. She'd never shared the story of her original inspiration, never told anyone about her aspiration to be like the girl she'd watched on the screen at UTX. She'd also never told anyone that every night without fail, when Honoka was alone in her room and was sure she wouldn't be disturbed, she continued to practice on her own. Except she didn't practice to any song performed by Muse.

Honoka always began by loading up her laptop and clicking on the link saved at the very top of her favourites list. It would take her straight to the music video of Private Wars, the song she had heard on that fateful day in the shadow of UTX. Popping her headphones in her ears, she would sit quietly and watch the show. And every time she watched, Honoka's eyes would zone in immediately on the centre.

Her name was Tsubasa, Kira Tsubasa, and she was perfection incarnate.

As the sort-of-but-not-really leader of Muse, Honoka couldn't help but look up to Tsubasa as a role model and had done so since the very beginning. Tsubasa was the first and last word in how to be an idol; Honoka loved to watch her sing and dance, smiling throughout as if what she was doing came as naturally to her as breathing. Watching A-RISE inspired Honoka to push herself, to work harder than ever, to try and become an idol worthy of the name. And she'd never quite let go of the little dream she had of one day meeting Tsubasa face to face and being received as an equal, as a friend. But to get there, she had to work hard.

So she would sit perfectly still and watch the master at work. After several minutes of quiet observation, Honoka's work really began: she would transfer her headphones from laptop to phone and queue Private Wars to play. But before she pressed play, she would stand in front of the mirror, take a deep breath and wink.

It wasn't as cute as Tsubasa's but she didn't mind that. She doubted anyone else could make her feel the way she felt when Tsubasa winked. Still, it was part of her preparations and it helped Honoka to get in character; it helped her to pretend that, just for a few minutes, she could be the legendary Kira Tsubasa.

She pressed play and let the music take her on a journey.

It had taken almost a month of evening practices before she had been able to successfully mimic Tsubasa's part of the dance routine from start to finish. Now she could do the whole routine flawlessly, but not without a significant amount of effort and concentration. It still felt strange pausing and standing still every couple of seconds while her imaginary partners danced on without her, but Honoka could keep time to the music and she felt she would have been able to hold her own in an actual performance. Of course, that would never happen, but in the privacy of her room she could pretend she was dancing on stage with her idols in front of a sell out crowd.

Her favourite part of the routine was always Tsubasa's big finisher. Honoka spun on one heel in a perfect circle, bent over almost double and blew a kiss at the mirror before waving goodbye as the music ended. It was a rather provocative move and not one that she thought Umi or Eli would approve of if Honoka suggested that Muse try it out. Not that she ever would; she didn't want people to say Muse just copied what A-RISE did first. Besides, even though Honoka was able to pull the move off technically, when she watched herself in the mirror, the move didn't make her heart palpitate the way it did when she watched Tsubasa do it. The centre of A-RISE just had a way of making you feel like the kiss was meant for you and you alone.

The main light suddenly flicked on. "What are you doing?"

Honoka immediately straightened and turned to look at the door. Yukiho stood in the doorframe, looking slightly bemused.

"Nothing," Honoka replied, her voice just a little too high pitched for her own liking. "I was… checking to see if I had a spot on my forehead."

Yukiho nodded over to the desk lamp which, until a few seconds ago, had been the only dim source of illumination in the room. "Even though you were in the dark?"

"I was just about to turn the main light on when you came in." Honoka made a big show of leaning a bit closer to the mirror and inspecting herself. "Nope, no spots there. That's a relief. So… did you want me for something?"

"Mom was shouting for you. She sent me to tell you that she could hear you stomping around from the kitchen and that she was worried that the ceiling might cave in." Yukiho smiled to herself. "So were you really just checking for spots? Because it looked like you were blowing a kiss to the mirror. Were you practicing Tsubasa-san's signature move again?"

"No," Honoka lied. Yukiho's expression was so skeptical that even Honoka realized she wasn't buying it. "Oh Yukiho, have you gained a bit of weight?"

Honoka felt instantly bad for saying it (particularly considering how Yukiho looked as stick-thin as usual) but it had the desired effect of getting her out of her jam. Her little sister looked down at her stomach and immediately fled the room. No doubt she was going straight to the bathroom scales.

In an attempt to limit the damage she might have caused, Honoka poked her head out of the door and shouted down the corridor "But it looks good on you."

When she received no answer, Honoka closed her door, this time taking the time to turn the key in the lock. She didn't want to be disturbed again. As an afterthought, she also kicked her shoes off so that she wouldn't make so much noise moving around. Picking up her phone, Honoka pressed the rewind button to set Private Wars back to the start.

"Let's try that again."

* * *

At the same time halfway across Chiyoda, Tsubasa finished drying and putting away the last of the evening's dishes. Her little brother, who had helped her for a while, had already long since run off, leaving Tsubasa alone with her thoughts. She wasn't particularly troubled about anything: her grades were good, idol practice that afternoon had gone really well and she was generally pleased with how life was treating her. But something itched at her in the back of her mind; she was impatient to finish her chores and no sooner had she done so than she rushed away to her bedroom.

Closing the door firmly behind her, Tsubasa immediately went to her desk. Taking a seat, she booted up her computer and waited patiently for it to load. She offered thanks to the gods (as she did every time she logged on) for whichever computer programmer it had been who designed the password protection feature. It would have been… embarrassing to say the least if just anyone was able to access her computer.

The reason why greeted her as soon as she logged in: her desktop background comprised of a slide show of the members of Muse. And anyone who sat there and watched for long enough might notice that one particular member of the group appeared on the screen far more frequently than any of the others. In fact, it was the very same person who was currently on her screen: Kousaka Honoka dressed in her outfit from Korekara no Someday.

For a few moments, Tsubasa simply stared at the picture of the smiling, energetic girl. It had become distressingly easy of late for her to lose all track of time just gazing at her counterpart. She always tried to justify her staring: Honoka was simply magnetic, she would reason, and had a way of unconsciously drawing people's attention to her without even being aware of it. That was all it was… sort of.

According to Anju, the first time she had shown her Muse performing Start:Dash, Tsubasa had watched the whole thing open-mouthed. After it had finished, Tsubasa had immediately hit the replay button for the purposes of researching this new, potentially dangerous group. Childish and immature as they were, Anju and Erena had intimated that there were perhaps other reasons why Tsubasa wanted to watch the video again. Tsubasa hadn't dignified them with a response but that hadn't stopped them from teasing her. She later found out that they had made a game of betting on how many times she would jump or react whenever they said Honoka's name as she watched. The record, apparently, was nine times in three minutes.

When Tsubasa had gone over her thoughts regarding Honoka (in a professional manner naturally) as centre of the rival group, Anju had instantly seized on it as further teasing material. She'd stage whispered to Erena about how cute it was that Tsubasa had a crush. Erena took up the subject with relish and the pair of them made little comments all afternoon about how cute they would be together or about how they should sing a love song as a duet.

Tsubasa had seen red even as a fiery glow began to engulf her, though she held her tongue for a while. But she finally snapped when Anju asked how she was planning to confess her undying love to the rival leader. "Just because you're in love with another girl doesn't mean we all are, Anju-chan!"

Tsubasa would be the first to admit that her response had been underhand. Her prior knowledge of Anju's feelings for Erena was a terrible thing to use as a weapon, but it did shut Anju up for a while. Still, she'd felt bad when Erena had pestered Anju with questions, trying to find out who she had a crush on, blissfully ignorant of the fact that she was the object of the other girl's affections.

Perhaps… Anju had a point though.

While the idea that she had a crush on her rival was… absurd, even Tsubasa had to admit, anyone who logged onto her computer might think she was a shade more obsessed with Honoka than she ought to be. While she had chosen these images as her desktop initially with the best of intentions, the niggling voice at the back of her head couldn't help but drop constant comments that the steps she'd taken went far beyond the call of simple research.

Even though Tsubasa had been in the idol game for almost two years and could say without arrogance that she was one of the best in the business, Honoka was just something else entirely. What made her even more captivating was how blithely unaware she was of the effect she had on people. She shone brighter than a flame in the darkness. What was more, her bright, happy persona wasn't even an act, or if it was, it was the best that Tsubasa had ever seen. And while she wanted to understand what made the ginger haired girl so appealing so that she could figure out ways to improve A-RISE's own performances, part of her (a more significant part than she cared to admit) watched Honoka simply because she wanted to.

Tsubasa smiled again when the picture on her desktop changed to one of Honoka and her fellow idols, Kotori and Umi, although the focus of the picture remained on the centre. It was one of her personal favourites: from Start:Dash, the song that had started it all; which reminded her of why she'd turned on the computer in the first place. She cursed as she realized that she'd been sat there for almost ten minutes just staring at the picture on her screen.

Firing up her internet browser, it didn't take Tsubasa long to find what she looking for: the music video which had started all this. It had become almost a ritual that she watched Start:Dash at least once a night. Again, what she had once started doing for the purposes of research had (d)evolved into something else entirely.

Anju would have a field day if she knew that this was what Tsubasa did every evening.

Dismissing the thought, Tsubasa pressed play on the video and promptly lost interest in all else for the next three minutes. It didn't matter how many times she watched the video, Tsubasa was amazed every time. It wasn't that their dancing was particularly great. If anything, it was decidedly amateurish compared to some of their later efforts. And the song itself didn't particularly move her. But that didn't matter: Kotori-san's earnestness, Umi-san's strength and most of all Honoka's charisma compensated for the group's early technical weaknesses and was what kept Tsubasa coming back to this video time and time again.

When the song ended, Tsubasa pressed replay without a moment's hesitation. After watching Start:Dash through for a second time, she then proceeded to work her way through every song Muse had filmed to date. Always her eyes homed in on Honoka, watching her very carefully. Every time Honoka smiled at the camera, Tsubasa smiled back.

She ended on a final viewing of Start:Dash before locking her computer. Crossing the room to make doubly sure that her door was locked, Tsubasa opened up her wardrobe and rummaged through her clothes, looking for and selecting one very particular garment. It was a pink sleeveless dress with golden buttons and a white underskirt. It was a close replica of Honoka's outfit from Start:Dash. More than that, it was one of Tsubasa's prized possessions, having paid more money than was probably wise to have it commissioned.

Forget the computer; if Anju knew about this, she would never let Tsubasa live it down. Ever.

Quickly changing into the dress, Tsubasa moved over to the mirror and put her hair up in a side ponytail with a pink ribbon. After pulling on white stockings and similarly white sleeves, the effect was quite strikingly close to the original. Tsubasa smiled at herself in the mirror; the effect pleased her though she felt a pale imitation of the real Honoka.

Putting Start:Dash on her stereo, Tsubasa took up her position and prepared to dance.

* * *

The next day, Tsubasa arrived at school to find the usual crowd formed outside the main entrance, watching the gigantic screen that was currently playing one of A-RISE's latest songs. There were uniforms all the myriad colours of the rainbow: red, green, purple, yellow and blue. If she stopped to look, Tsubasa was certain she'd find at least one girl from every school in the district.

It always amused Tsubasa when she cut through the crowd that they were so focused on the screen, they never noticed one of the actual performers walking in their midst. That wasn't a bad thing though. Though she loved being an idol, Tsubasa had never quite shaken her fear of crowds. She was uneasy even now just walking through one where no-one was paying her any attention.

She was almost through when her eye was caught by a blazer dyed in a distinctive shade of deep, rich blue. Although she'd already passed plenty of girls in uniforms of varying shades of blue, this one caught her eye and held it. Tsubasa knew that the girls who wore that particular uniform went to Otonokizaka Academy for Girls, the very school Muse went to. Plenty of girls from Otonokizaka visited UTX every day though; it wasn't a remarkable occurrence. Tsubasa was just about to continue on her way when she stopped again. The girl in blue, Tsubasa noted, had ginger hair done up in a side ponytail.

Tsubasa's pulse began to race. Surely it couldn't be her. Why would she be here of all places?

Instantly changing course, Tsubasa made her way over to the red haired girl, becoming more certain with every step that it was _her._ Tsubasa's grin grew wider and wider until she was stood directly behind the girl. For a moment, she hesitated, wondering if this was a good idea. Perhaps it would be best to slip away before she was noticed. She didn't want to introduce herself if she was going to end up being all weird and staring.

But then she tapped the girl on the shoulder and her opportunity to run away was lost.

The girl turned. Bemused blue eyes met her own. "Tsubasa… san?"

"Hello, Honoka-san."

After getting over her initial surprise, Honoka smiled at her. Tsubasa smiled back, just like she always did when she watched the music videos and felt her worries wash away. They looked into each other's eyes and Tsubasa felt an instant bond of affection and kinship, as if she'd known Honoka for her entire life and that this meeting simply marked the start of a day as normal as any other.

"I'm your biggest fan," they said to each other simultaneously.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading. I don't really have a great deal to say here. I hope you enjoyed the story. I don't feel that this story is one of my best but I'm happy enough with it to publish it. Plus, Tsubasa just needs to be a main character in more fanfics. I have a sort-of sequel to this in the works, but it'll be a while before it's ready to go. Until next time, bye for now.**

**Edit 08.02.2015: I've just noticed today that I've been spelling Yukiho's name wrong as Yuhiko. I've corrected all the misspellings. Additionally, a note of explanation: for those who don't know, Chiyoda is one of the 23 wards that form the city of Tokyo and is the ward that contains Akihabara. As far as I know, Chiyoda is the ward where Love Live is actually set, but if I'm wrong please let me know.**

**Oh and one last thing. Initially when I uploaded this, failed to add the character and completion status details to the summary bar. I only noticed this around eight hours after upload and it seems to have become a common problem for my uploads. So, just to be clear, this is a oneshot. Apologies for any confusion (and for the long a/n).**


End file.
